Dean's message
Future-Proofing the Innovation Economy
May 2025
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Engineering schools are critical for future-proofing the innovation economy of California and the nation – and we do it one student at a time. In this way, engineering and computer science schools are unusual – even magical – places of personal and technological transformation with outsized positive impact.
People come to engineering schools to be transformed – to BECOME engineers. Students arrive with a strong desire to do constructive things in the physical world. They want to have positive impacts on others. Computer science education is equally transformative – our digital worlds are, indeed, ever more tightly bound to the physical world.
Federal funding for engineering and computer science research is critical for future-proofing our innovation economy over the long term. I am deeply concerned about the current federal research funding uncertainties. This month, I am looking at this issue in terms of our students. When they graduate, they become the workforce that future-proofs our innovation economy. This cycle repeats year after year, with each graduating class.
Perhaps you hold concerns about federal funding cuts and about our ability to continue to future-proof the innovation economy. If you do, now is the time to share those concerns – and for whatever ways you can support us, I will be grateful.
I have been an engineering professor within the University of California since 1983, and over that time I have seen an extraordinary number of professional and personal transformations occur amongst engineering and computer science students. As students learn to create and use technology to improve lives and to make things better, they are transformed personally and professionally in ways that ripple across our innovation economy for the greater good.
The Jacobs School is one of the largest engineering schools in the country. Just last year, more than 2,800 people graduated with engineering and computer science degrees from our School. In addition to scale, we have line of sight to the right workforce development targets for today and for tomorrow.
We are, indeed, future-proofing this innovation economy.
We do this by educating and inspiring the technical workforce that fuels today’s innovation-driven industries.
We also educate and inspire the technical workforce for new and emerging industries such as fusion engineering, healthcare engineering and wearable sensors, biomanufacturing, emerging intelligence such as AI Tutors and new approaches to semiconductors.
These industries – and many more – will be built by the students we inspire and educate and by the innovations we make. To do this work as effectively as possible, we need robust resources to fuel both fundamental and applied research – projects taken on by our students as part of their education.
These are absolutely critical workforce development efforts that strengthen our state and national economy and supercharge our competitiveness in the global marketplace.
I am more driven than ever to ensure that transformative educational experiences in research labs and classrooms continue full tilt. This requires resources for both fundamental and applied research. The exact makeup of research funding may change over time, but our educational and research missions here at the Jacobs School remain steadfast. And I am determined to find the resources necessary to prosecute our missions to the fullest. Together as a campus community, we are working hard to communicate the importance of federal funding through the UC San Diego Behind Every Breakthrough initiative.
As always, I can be reached at DeanPisano@ucsd.edu
Sincerely,
Al
Albert ("Al") P. Pisano
Dean, UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering
Special Adviser to the Chancellor for Campus Strategic Initiatives